Israeli forces bisect Gaza

Humanitarian crisis deepening, relief groups say.

Humanitarian crisis deepening, relief groups say.

January 05, 2009

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (MCT) -- Israeli tanks and ground troops moved swiftly Sunday to seize large sections of Gaza, encircling its largest city and cutting the narrow strip of land in two in what military officials called a "real war" on the militant Islamic group Hamas. On the first full day of ground operations following an eight-day air assault, Israeli infantry units, backed by firepower from Apache helicopters and Navy warships, swept into the Hamas-controlled coastal territory in the early morning hours and began going house to house in search of Palestinian militants, witnesses said. Seventy Palestinians were killed, including 21 children, and another 140 people injured, according to Gaza medical officials. While heavy fighting and airstrikes echoed across northern Gaza, terrified residents hunkered down in their homes as relief agencies described a deepening humanitarian crisis. The Israeli military campaign has knocked out power and running water to most of the strip's 1.5 million residents, and all of Gaza's hospitals are running on generators that "are close to collapse," the U.N. said. World leaders expressed dismay at the escalation in fighting, but no road map to a quick truce emerged. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged that the ground operation opened a new and much more dangerous phase in the war, but said that it was necessary to cripple Hamas' infrastructure and to stop militants from firing thousands of crude rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory. Defying the ground invasion, Gaza militants fired another 40 rockets into southern Israel on Sunday, military officials said. Residents scrambled for shelter but no serious injuries were reported. The Bush administration has backed Israel's use of force and blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement that would have called for an immediate cease-fire. The administration has said that Hamas must take the first step toward a cease-fire. Hamas leaders vowed to turn Gaza into a "graveyard" for Israeli soldiers, but casualties on the first day were not as heavy as many expected. One Israeli soldier was killed and another severely injured, officials said, while 28 others suffered relatively minor injuries. The incursion into densely populated Gaza marks Israel's biggest military operation there in years. As they surrounded Gaza City, Israeli forces exchanged fire with militants armed with mortars and remote-controlled bombs, officials said. Israeli forces pushed nearly to the territory's Mediterranean coastline, eyewitnesses said, effectively severing the northern third of Gaza off from the south.